The Scrap Locomotives Of Thomas & Friends: An Analysis 

The scrap yards is literally a graveyard for engines and the corpses are just left there to rot. I always wondered about why there were so many scrapes steam locomotives on the island considering it’s a safe place for steam.

I loved how the scrap engines sort of explained why they had issues with the Diesels. Since diesels and scrapped engines tended to appear together. The steam engines very existence was threatened. The Steam Engines weren't hostile to the Diesels out of blind hatred, it was born out of the fear of being replaced.

Fun fact it is believed that the original thomas and Gordon models from the 1984 pilot episode were used as scrap scene dressing. Erego the thomas/Gordon models

We're praying for the day when we see NIA in the scrapyard.

that one image was always kinda eerie to me, with the two engines awaiting their deaths.

The scrap engines definitely show there is a darker undertone to Thomas then meets the eye. Its why episodes like *Escape* and *Rusty to the rescue* are some of my favs in the entire series.

How did Thomas feel about some random artist taking dead engine's parts to make a sculpture? He dreamt of it too, is Thomas a clairvoyant or did the engine's remains communicate with him? We just don't knoooow...

Me and a friend have been working on a story around the Scrap Locomotives, and Diesel 10. But not on Sodor. Actually at Doncaster works, involving a Locomotive of a Gresley Design (We aren't quite sure what type yet). Whole store revolves around a Kid finding a soon to be scrapped Locomotive in the yards of Doncaster Works. And with the help of a few people. Trying to get him running, while sneaking around the scrap yard for parts, while avoiding Diesel 10, and attempting to get the old engine to the island of Sodor. This also being what brings Diesel 10 to Sodor originally.

Being 'optimistic' maybe the scrap engines are dismantled on the mainland, and then taken a scrap facility, and since Sodor has one, they can be taken there. That way, it's out of Sir Topham's control, but he still needs to business.

As my dad would always say when Sir Topham Hatt was talking to the engines. "I will have you disassembled, and melted down."

What you were saying about how important they were bringing light to the scrapping of most steam engines was actually the point of Awdry's whole series he was sad about the dieselization and was an advocate of railway preservation

Seeing how David Mitton created the scrap yards in season 5, I can only wonder how “the ships graveyard” would’ve looked like in season 2 since it was set to take place more upriver.

Nice to hear Alec Baldwin's narration, I'm sure that guy's career will never receive negative attention

Here is another dark thing about "Thomas and Friends" which has something to do with the scrap/death thing. There are several instances where Thomas thinks about being scrapped. In "Thomas and Friends: The Great Race", Thomas and Ashima sing a song called "You Can Only Be You" and in it, Ashima tells Thomas that he should not change what he is, and at one scene where Thomas looks down at his reflection in the water and he sings "Break me, shake me, Take me all apart, There has to be A better place to start". In "Thomas and Friends: Journey Beyond Sodor", during the scene where Thomas meets the Experimental Engines again after he escapes the Steelworks factory, Thomas at one point says "No, Theo. I'm not being scrapped. But... (sigh) I probably should be." The writers are basically saying that Thomas has a habit of thinking about suicide and no one is trying to do anything to help.

The fact that you were able to identify all these is really impressive /pos

These engines would have made great stories in the TVS! Like, for example, if Stepney witnessed them getting scrapped and he fled to Sodor but got caught, I don't know?!

I was low-key upset when I realize that the City of Truro model got scrapped in the show

The scrap yards always fascinated me because the detail and the sets looked so dirty and eerie. And the RWS illustration is one of the best detailed in the Series! Having the subject of scrap in the show did help remind everyone that the locomotives are mortal. And while preservation may extend their life, metal can only last so long. I was also the only kid in kindergarten who knew the meaning of scrap thanks to these episodes.

To a lesser extent, The 'Lost locomotive' from the episode 'Duncan gets spooked' could also be disgussed here, although not a scrapped engine, but still one that appears as a blurry or shadow so you cant quite pick what it is.

The Railway series of books has a lot of dark undertones in regards to scrapping of steam engines. Gordon morns the loss of his brothers. And to make things worse the only one who is still around is quite unpleasant towards him. When The Fat controller ends up getting two trains instead of one with Donald and Douglas. He keeps Douglas because he knows what will happen to him if he’s returned.

For me I think they are aware that they are machines which means that they do work and I think they know that if they end up breaking down or are unrepairable then they’re going to meet the Cutters torch eventually 😔😔

2:44 I like that the scrap D&D have a splash of blue on them. That's a fun RWS reference.

I really wish that the original series did an episode on all the scrapped engines. Would make for an interesting plot imo

imagine seeing a thomas engine being scrapped that would be brutal like idk bill or ben seeing them being ripped apart would be so sad

There scrapped, sent to the breakers yard to be melted down. Good vid

something I never really understood about the scrap engines was what happened to their faces? Assuming they were part of the railroad at one point they were most likely alive and such, and seeing them all rusted out and junked just makes you wonder what happened to them as individuals? I guess it could be an instance of the episode about the "celebrity engine" from the model railroad series because that guy didn't have a face either...but its still food for thought :3

Your content always makes my day ten times better! Ur channel is one of my absolute favorites and the history & true stories content are my fav way to pass time. Keep doing what ur doing (:

You would think that when these trains become sentient beings, there would be some morality issues with scrapping them. When i saw that picture as a kid, all i could picture was the screams that must have lasted long into the night, screams of formerly loyal engines now cut into pieces for the crime of living too long.

Last time I was this early was when I came to school 2 hours early.

There was also the Halloween engine in the episode, Halloween. I found that to be creepy. Seeing a scrap engine actually moving. I know it was supposed to be a story that the engines were telling on Halloween, but it still looked creepy.

Whenever I even looked at the scrapyard set I always thought it was really messy, I’d be like “why haven’t they melted these down or whatever they do” especially when the diesels joke about using the steamies for scrap

I imagine a scrap engines face being a circle with two holes where the eyes were and a hole where the mouth was

I honestly prefer the RWS canon more when it comes to these types of things. The only scrapyard (that we know of) in the Railway Series is Crock scrapyard in Wellsworth, but that one only specialises in industrial machinery and road vehicles.

Other shows with personified machines: "No we don't talk about what happens to them when they are scrapped or destroyed" TTTE: "Show em a scrap yard with two tank engines facing their demise" Brave little toaster: "We can go a step further!"

Im surprised nobody in the thomas community is mentioning what happened with alec baldwin

This intro... is just perfect, also i was waiting for someone talks about the scrap engines :D.

My childhood curiosity is how they got the face off the scrapped engines when I was young

I loved this, but you did miss one, the one you missed was the scrapped locomotives next to stepney in rusty to the rescue

I never thought about it like that as a kid. But....if you think about it.... that's the equivalent of dead bodies left out in the open to rot , to be dissected, for all to see. Thomas and his friends know that is what is going to happen to them after it's decided that he's no longer a " useful engine".

For the American engine that fell down the Grand Canyon (i.e Midwest USA) I think it would be a smaller Union Pacific engine, like an MK class 2-8-2 or one of the smaller 2-8-0s

Victor Tanzig got the scrapping philosophy down quite well. Basically that faceless engines are scrapped but the living, breathing engines cannot be taken out of service without consent. Certainly makes things far less morbid.

Thank you for telling me about how they did the scrap engines.

The books were written at the end of steam on British Railways. There were so many locos being scrapped in the early 60s, that the scrap yards could not cope. There were even yards that specialized in breaking the individual parts of the loco. As a young lad there a yard that just cut up boilers near my Grandparents. It was fascinating to look over their wall at all the boiler waiting to be cut up. I'm not sure what the Island of Sodor's economy is but wouldn't surprise if it was post industrial and had a large ship and loco breaking industry.

So what happens to the face? Does it rot away? Are there scrapped engines with a skull where the face would be?

Seeing the earth turn into the Thomas suprised face killed me 😂😂😂😂

I wonder if the scrap yard was based off the famous Barry Scrap Yard. Fun fact the Steam engine that became the Hogwarts Express was saved from Barry Scrap Yard.

1:08 I thought that was Drayton manor

Fun Fact all the LB&SCR class E2s (What Thomas is meant to resemble) have been scrapped so I guess he'll be going back there soon

1:19 I used to thing the far right Gordon copy and E2 were some weird hybrid thing.

I wonder if there's any info about what happens to the engines and rolling stock when scrapped. Or even for that fact why some (but not all) vehicles are sentient

Assuming that Thomas is one of, if not the last remaining E2 locomotive, then that means that the other E2s in the scrap yard are his siblings, meaning he either willingly or unwillingly went to work for the same man that had his last remaining siblings killed.

I HAVE already subscribed. It'd be good if there were more scrap diesels

I feel like there was an attempt to grapple more with the concept of scrapped engines in season 5 and it was building to something great, but then they just forgot after that…

Reminds me someone replied to me on Discord when I said the scrap engines are DeviantArt Recolors. "BOLD OF YOU TO ASSUME THE SCRAPYARD ENGINES AREN'T RECOLOR OCS THE FAT CONTROLLER IS HUNTING DOWN FOR SPARE PARTS AND FOR SPORT"

don't know if you'll see this but id love to see you make a video about "tenders for henry" as I think it is quite morbid, I mean they literally say boiler sludge as in the decaying remains of the insides of an engine. not to mention they make him drag what are essentially dead engines through the station at the end. great video as always scrap is one of my favourite elements of the franchise

1:53 interesting choice, I've always thought the engine to be a similar to the SECR class C.

None of the scrapped engine husks across the series have actual faces. Either they have just an ordinary smokebox door or it's missing. When an engine theoretically "dies" I imagine anything regarding their facial features just de-materialize. I'm thinking the process of Lady's transformation in The Magic Railroad, just in reverse. It's entirely possible that not _every_ locomotive in the Thomas & Friends universe that is in service is sentient. There's a lot of rolling stock throughout the entire series in which some freight cars are sentient, and some are inanimate. Same with automobiles. We sort of see this thing with City of Truro. Kind of a weird case with him, as he is depicted without a face, but is seemingly sentient. I'd imagine the reason we never really see any locomotives who aren't sentient on the Island of Sodor is because Sir Topham Hatt probably takes a liking to trains who have actual personalities.

was that wings of redemption? lol great vid

I like your universal-sounding theme!!!

Great video

you mentioned every scrapped engines but except one Reginald

yay new video

It’s like a scary graveyard spooky at night you can hear ghost whistles as if they saying help us we used to be lovely engines but those rotten diesels and people scrapped us. This is why there are no E2 engines left.

The idea of being 'scrapped' is becoming easier and easier for human beings to understand.

You missed one location which is the smelter's yard. It also has a lot of scrap locomotives and stuff in its scenes too such as the engine cab hanging from a crane.

That one locomotive was bombed out in WWII. Causality of War on the island.

i think what makes the scrapping part of the franchise so disturbing, is it's never made clear how or when the engine would actually die. it could sit there, motionless, still alive, or be sitting there, very much NOT alive. is it removing the face? the firebox? why would an out of service engine's firebox be on? what about non-steam locomotives, Diesels (at least in TRWS) can be scrapped, or what about non-locomotives? can a piece of rail equipment, sentient or not, be able to be considered legally dead? is this a system based on rust or being cut up? the only sure thing is that melting an engine will 100% kill it but that applies to anything that can't withstand intense temperatures.

The loco on the right in the illustration looks more like a tender 0-6-0 with the tender removed... Possibly a Dean Goods or a Fowler 4F... 👍

2:31 Is that a donald/douglas model with blue paint? Its in the centre of the screen?

2:54 wait they actually showed off scrapped diesels?

if people are upset that you do videos on tugs characters, that’s their problem. you do whatever your heart wants.

you should do a video in this style, but with ghost engines for halloween.

Graveyards and Scrapyards serve as reminders to enjoy life to the fullest before its over.

Yay me idea got turned into a video

the thomas and gordon styled scrapped engines are most likely the "down the mine" pilot models

2:42 My theory is that might be one of Gordons brother or sister since it was mentioned by sir topham hatt that they were all scrapped except Flying scotsman

If you’re looking for darkness, maybe examine the ghost engines of the classic series?

I HAVENT SEEN THIS IN FCKIN AGES HOLY SHT I missed this kinda stuff and cartoons

I hear a lot of people asking why the island of Sodor has so many scrap engines despite being a preservation railway. My best guess is that the mainland didn't want to deal with all of the experimental engines and sent half-scrapped engines to Sodor.

well, this is freaky: how do they cut their faces off? would they still be alive? DO ENGINES HAVE BLOOD? DO I EVEN EXIST??

I'd love to see a history of the Märklin engine (if you haven't done one already)

I really wanna make a comedian skit on the whole idea of scrap from the Thomas and friend because they’re living things not inanimate objects like in real life they have thoughts and feelings

THANK YOU

Personally, I liked your tugs episode on 10 cents. I was kinda hoping that you would talk about the ghost scrap engine from Thomas & Friends season 8, episode 21, time 0:21. But that could be classified as a ghost. There's an idea. You should do an episode of all of the ghost engines.

2:30 the loco in the middle looks like it had a boiler explosion. Too much damage to be a normal rusting out.

The scrap engines: You did this... *YOU DID THIS!*

One thing I noticed you neglect to mention when you brought up scrapped toad brake vans, was Toad's scrap model, which was used both in "Escape" and later on re-used (without face) on Toby's Discovery.

Interesting, why all scrap locomotives is faceless?

What do they do to the faces? do they store them to put on different locomotive? (also please can you format the auto captioning into closed captioning to make it accessible)

Is that the crane from TUGS in the background of the main shot used in this video? That crane needs a "history of" video, as the only character in both shows.

R.I.P Reginald

Eerie engine I'd like to see a history video on

Imagine just wondering in the island and you randomly see a face in a scrapped train

You guys wanted to know where the new parts came from and are made this is it

Damn, this was a technical video.

On this day in history trainboy made this fantastic video. And..... the least favorite Mr. conductor went full WTF

Well Halloween is near by, so makes sense

Yes

Fantastic. But did anyone else spot in the big picture used where the scrap engines are a1, e2 and Caledonian that one of the 2 Caledonian twins has blue paint on it towards the cab?? Makes me wonder if at some point one of the model makers test painted it to and that we would see the twins in blue but later decided to stay black to not confuse the kids watching or simply because there would be too many blue engines. Whats your thoughts @TrainBoy ??